The Tenth Must of Christ

Your Bible at the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. We're reading a few verses here from verse twenty to verse twenty-five. Luke's Gospel, chapter seventeen and verse twenty.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here or lo there, for behold the kingdom of God is within you. And he saith unto the disciples, The day will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.

And they shall say to you, See here, or see there. Go not after them, nor follow them. For as a lightning that lightneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day.

But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. Luke at verse twenty-five, and we have another of the musts of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is actually the tenth one.

But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. May God bless his word to our hearts. Let us pray.

I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost to fill me to the uttermost. I take, thank God he undertakes for me. As I have said, we have in this text the tenth must spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ during the period of his humiliation upon this earth.

And he says Christ must suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. Here we have the picture of the rejected sufferer. The Lord Jesus Christ is the suffering Christ.

And all through his life he laid special emphasis upon the fact that he was going to be a sufferer. That he was going to suffer many things. And eventually would die on the cross and be buried.

But the third day he would rise again. I want to take that word sufferer, and I want to use it tonight in the form of an acrostic. And I want to spell out from it the real meaning of this sufferer.

The first letter of course, here is the sufferer and he is the rejected sufferer. The S stands for sufferer. You will remember what Isaiah wrote in his great description of the cross.

Which he wrote about five hundred years before the cross took place. But his eye was bright, his sight was perfect, and his description was inspired. As he wrote about the one who was the rejected sufferer.

How contemptible was our attitude to Christ before we were saved. How hellish was the way we treated him when he stood at our hearts door on many occasions. And knocked it with his nail printed hand.

And we put on the locks and on the bars and on the chains. And we said, I'll never open my heart, I'll never welcome him in. We had that awful opposition.

That opposition to Christ which causes the immortal soul of man to be cut off in a lost sinner's hell forever. We were part of that depravity and part of that cruelty as a sinner that we poured upon the Son of God. Mr. Spurgeon in one of his great sermons said this.

Jesus Christ was no phantom. He was a man of flesh and blood even as ourselves. He was a man who needed sleep, who required food, and subject to pain.

And a man who in the end yielded up his life to death. There may be and there needs to be a clear distinction between the body of our Savior and our body. Because his body never was defiled by sin.

It was not capable of corruption. Otherwise in body and in soul, Jesus Christ was perfect man. But it was after the order and likeness of our sinful flesh.

Christ was never made sinful flesh. But he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, the Bible tells me, he condemned sin in the flesh.

Our temptation is to forget at time the real humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He knew what it was to be hungry. He knew what it was to be cold.

He knew what it was to have nowhere to lay his head. He knew what it was to grab some moments of sleep while the man sealed the boat across the storm-tossed sea of Galilee. Jesus Christ had all the infirmities of the flesh left upon him.

He knew what it was to suffer pain. In fact, I believe the pains that Jesus suffered, we cannot even contemplate them aright. Our bodies are sinful bodies.

Sin coarsens the flesh. Sin hardens not only the heart, but the body. And because we are sinners, we have a hardness against the persecution of the world, and the suffering of the world, and the sickness of the world, and the infirmities of the world.

But Jesus Christ's body was perfect. It was sinless. And any pain he felt, he felt it only as a man with a sinless body could feel.

And that is not describable or cannot be compared with any sorrow we have ever had. Jesus Christ as man partook of our flesh and blood. We read in Hebrew, he took part of the sea.

He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. So first of all, he was the rejected sufferer. But not only was he the rejected sufferer, but we can see him secondly as the unique sufferer.

Yes, Christ's suffering was unique. No other person ever could suffer the way Jesus suffered. He alone as the sinless, spotless Son of God, was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Jesus Christ was declared by the Father to be the one who would carry our sins away. He didn't carry them as a sheep, he carried them as a lamb. There is nothing as tender as a lamb.

There is nothing so susceptible to ill treatment that a lamb could be. And Christ is typified as the Lamb of God who had taken away the sin of the world. Yes, Jesus Christ is the unique sufferer.

Never anyone ever suffered like him before, and never anyone will ever suffer like him again. O King of grief, a title strange but true, to thee of all kings only true. O King of wounds, how shall I grieve for thee? Not a sorrowing man, but a man of sorrows, who in all grief preventest me.

That is Christ. The Christ who is the Christ completely and totally unique. But the third letter is the letter F, the first F in the word sufferer.

And it speaks to me of the fight of the sufferer. Jesus Christ was stainless. Jesus Christ was spotless.

Jesus Christ was separated. Jesus Christ was harmless. Because we as man and woman have been coarsened by our own depravity, as hardened wretches of a condemned race, we cannot really understand the extent of the pain and the sufferings and the agonies of the Son of God.

Because tied to his perfect and impeccable and sinless humanity was his deity. When Christ became incarnate, he did not change his personality. He took into union with this person our humanity.

But he did not give up his Godhead, for that he could not give up. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is man.

Jesus Christ is the God-man. The man Christ Jesus. And his holiness, as a sinless, impeccable man, made him more sensitive to the agony of his holy body, which he must have felt when that body became the carrying place of sin.

How many sins did he carry? Well, if he did not carry all your sins, you will never be in heaven. If there is one sin of yours that has not been atoned for, you are a lost soul. But thank God, Jesus carried all the sins of all his people to the cross.

As you read the Bible, you will discover that there are very many, very many references to the word, our. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was laid on him. And by his stripes we are healed. Why does it not say, he was wounded for your transgressions? He was bruised for your iniquities.

It does not say that. It says that he was wounded for our. You know why? That is a family text.

And if you are not in God's family, you do not get the blessing of that text. The day I got the blessing of that text, thank God I was born into God's family. And then I could say what Isaiah said, he was wounded for our transgressions.

Every elect soul chosen in Christ from before the beginning of the world had his sins laid all on Jesus. I lay my sins on Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God. And Jesus carried them all.

He carried them all. He dealt with the sin of the world, which was Adam's first transgression. But he dealt with all of the sins of all his people who would come by grace alone to put their trust in him.

His agony was unique. His wounds were unique. He tread all his foes beneath his feet by being trodden down.

But then the fourth letter is another F in suffer. And that is the fire of the sufferer. If you turn over to Lamentations, the book of Lamentations chapter 1. The book of Lamentations was written by Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet. There was a great preacher who used to preach in Belfast called Peter Conley. The Reverend Dr. Ken Conley's father.

And he used to preach in a tent up at Bloomfield. And he was always preaching on Jeremiah. And he was going up the aisle one night of the tent.

And there were two elderly ladies who were criticizing him. And then one of them turned around and says, there he goes, old weeping Jeremiah. He's going again.

But if Jeremiah knew how to weep, he knew how to picture the king in his death for us on the cross. And in the first chapter of Lamentations, we have one of the most interesting questions that the Lord Jesus Christ put when he was upon that cross. Is it nothing, verse 12 of Lamentations 1. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me.

For with the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Calvary was the day of God's fierce anger. Who was the recipient of that anger? Who was the target? Into what target did God shoot his arrows? None other than the blessed Son of God.

Behold and see, if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow. And then when we come to the next verse, we get the fire. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against me.

O the fire of judgment that burned in the very bones of our Savior upon the cross. Christ was specially marked. Of him alone it could be said, and said truly, that he was wounded of his Father in order that our wounds might be healed by his Father.

I trust tonight we will see Christ in the wonder of it all. The wonder of his suffering as the rejected sufferer. The wonder of his suffering as the unique sufferer.

The wonder of his suffering as not only the unique sufferer, but as the fighting sufferer. And as the fire burning sufferer. And what awful flames burned into Christ on the cross.

But we come a little farther and we find that the first E of sufferer. And that he stands for the excruciating sufferer. No one could define the pangs that this sufferer bore in his body.

The pains of Christ are indefinable. The hurt of Christ is inexplicable. The pangs of Christ are unimaginable.

There is no suffering like the suffering of God the Son for you and me upon the cross. We can cry out, help me to understand it. Help me to take it in.

What it meant for thee, the Holy One, to bear away my sin. Christ had to die in order to accomplish your salvation. The omnipotent God had to be crucified through weakness to achieve the almighty feat of saving your soul from hell and eternal death.

The sixth letter, of course, is the first R of the word sufferer. And that stands for the fact that he is a royal sufferer. On the cross, Christ didn't die as a victim.

He died as a victor. And all the painters of the cross and all the old users of the brush, they always paint Christ in weakness at the cross. Now I know that he was crucified through weakness.

But nowhere at the cross do we read of ever him lowering his head. His head was always upraised. His head was not lying down upon his chest.

Christ was in complete control of all things. The most wickedness of devils that threw themselves in the body of Christ to snatch from him his very life, they had no effect. Christ died the mighty victor.

He bruised Satan's head. And his heel was bruised in the breaking of Satan's head. But Christ won the victory at the cross.

He is the victor of Calvary. He is the one who won the war against sin and death and hell. And in the midst of it, his heart was filled with love.

Those that tore off his clothes and threw them down on that old tree and took the nails and the hammer and nailed his hands and feet to the cross. Do you know what he said? He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.

In the midst of the agony, there was triumphant love. Oh, it was love. It was wondrous love.

The love of God for me brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary. And then some minutes afterwards, he saw his mother standing with the woman at the foot of the cross. And their eyes are filled with tears.

And amidst the awful work he had to do to save your soul and mine from hell, the Lord Jesus had time to prepare for his mother's future when he was gone. And he said to John, Behold thy mother. And he said to the mother, Behold thy son.

And just thinking about that, the Lord Jesus on the cross did more for the widow than this Labour government will ever do for widows and for those that lose their pensions. Let me tell you this, the love that Jesus had for me, to suffer on the cruel tree, it's more than tongue can tell. And then beside him there were two thieves.

And they both cursed Christ and threw the same in his teeth. But a few minutes afterwards, one of them repented and prayed, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And what did he do? Did he say to him, You have just after cursing me.

You will be cursed with the curse of hell. No, he said, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. The all-conquering love of God for sinners as he died upon the cross.

He is the great enduring sufferer. The work is done. The price is paid.

Heaven's door is open. And heaven's door is closed to all who are washed in the blood. And heaven's door is open to all who are washed in the blood.

And hell's door closed can open on a person that's marked with the blood of the lamb. You know what the Lord said about the Passover lamb? When I see the blood, I will pass over you. And thank God we're happy today because he sees the precious blood, the stains of divine redemption on the blood of the sinners.

He endured the cross. He died that we might be forgiven. And the eighth letter is the second R. Thank God he's a resurrected sufferer.

Every time the Lord spoke of his death, he spoke of his resurrection. He never separated his death from his resurrection. And he always told them, Yes, I'll be despised.

I'll be rejected. The elders of this nation will put me on a cross. I'll die, but the third day I will rise again.

And thank God he did arise. And the calendar was changed. I was preaching once as a young fellow during the war in Bari.

There's a great place in Bari Island where everybody gathered on a Sunday to enjoy themselves with their sinning and their sins. And we used to go down and preach. And I remember preaching one day.

And there was a girl and she came out. She was in the uniform of the Women's Air Force. And she said, How do you know? How do you know there's a Jesus Christ? And I was only a young fellow, 17 years of age.

And I thought that I could talk down a woman. But I found out that no woman ever is talked down by a man. She always wins in the end.

You're better shutting up and have bad false teeth than do anything else. And I went on preaching and she got very angry. And the crowd got angry.

And I remember stopping and I said, Oh God, help me to shut this woman's mouth. And then I just got the answer like that. So I said, I'll get you to answer your own question.

You don't know why there's a Jesus Christ, but you do know. So you just answer my question now. I said, Maybe you could tell me what day this is.

She said, Yes, it's Sunday. I said, Right. Now, maybe you could tell me what month it is.

She said, Yes, it's the month of July. Now, I said, I have just one last question. What year is it? She said, 1941.

I said, Where did you get that from? The world's a lot older than 1941 years. And then the crowd saw what I was getting at. After death, the death of Christ.

The year of our Lord commenced when he rose. And the calendar was changed. I said, Come on, tell me, get out your diary.

Ask that fellow standing there, What is the year? And they all laughed and shouted and told her to shut up. She said, You're finished. So she was.

I want to tell you, Jesus Christ did what he said he would do. He said, I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The only person Jesus saves is a sinner.

And thank God, when he saves them, he saves them not in their sins. But he saves them from their sins forevermore. Why should we shrink at Jordan's flood or dread the unknown way? See, under rolls a stream of blood that bears the curse away.

Death lost his sting when Jesus bled. When Jesus left the ground, disarmed, the king of terrors fled and felt a mortal wound. And now his office is to wait between the saints and sin.

A porter at the heavenly gate lets the pilgrims in. Though his pale and ghastly face may seem to frown the wild, we soon shall see the king of grace, and he'll forever smile. It's a smiling Christ who's going to meet us in the land that is fairer than day.